UPDATE: Owner charged after complaint of llamas in distress on Alberta property

WATCH ABOVE: A Strathcona County pet food producer is being investigated after a complaint about llamas in distress. Eric Szeto reports.

WARNING: Some of the details and images in this article may be disturbing to some.

EDMONTON — An Alberta man has been charged with three offences after an investigation into the well-being of llamas on a rural property near South Cooking Lake.

Simon Keusch has been charged with:

– Allowing an animal to be in distress,

– Failing to provide adequate food and water for an animal,

– Failing to provide adequate care for an animal.

More than a dozen llamas were turned over to a caretaker February 18 after a resident called the SPCA concerned about their well-being.

The owner of the 15 llamas handed them over to a caretaker Wednesday after the SPCA arrived at the rural property.

“The llamas were thin. They weren’t receiving the proper care they needed during the winter,” explained SPCA spokesman Roland Lines at the time.

“Our officers were prepared to take the llamas off the property if they needed. But, as it turned out, the owner made arrangements for them to go to a caretaker’s today. Our officers will continue to monitor to make sure that the llamas do in fact go to the caretaker’s and that they receive appropriate care at that new location.”

A SPCA officer at the scene said it was clear the animals were malnourished and that – by their appearance – it seemed they had not been fed in weeks.

The owner says the estimation of weeks is false.  Keusch says the animals had food and water but that his water froze over during the cold snap.

A neighbour contacted resident Heather Bettke with concerns about the llamas’ well-being. When Bettke saw the situation herself, she immediately called the RCMP and SPCA.

“They were emaciated,” she told Global News on Wednesday. “There were three dead. The coyotes were circling the llamas… They were circling the live animals that were too weak to get up and they were actually chewing on the some of the live animals.”

“I was sickened. I was disgusted. I cried. No animal should suffer like that.”

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The SPCA would not confirm if there were dead animals on the property when officers arrived. Lines also wouldn’t say whether the SPCA had been called to that property in the past.

“They have to investigate because there were two dead animals on the property,” said Keusch, “but any farmer can have dead stock… on their property. This happens wherever there’s livestock.”

Keusch – who also runs two pet food businesses – denied the animals were in distress, calling the situation a “neighbour dispute.”

“Our investigation is ongoing,” explained Lines in February. “If the evidence that we’ve collected supports it, we would go forward with charges… under Alberta’s Animal Protection Act… either for causing or allowing animals to be in distress or for providing insufficient care.”

“The ASPCA stepped up to the plate,” said Bettke. “They spent a long time here, they talked to him, they told us charges are pending… They’re turning the animals over to a caretaker.

With files from Eric Szeto, Global News

*NOTE: This article was originally posted Feb. 18, 2015 and was updated with news of the charges on March 25, 2015.